University of Bath

Brief description of organization: The University of Bath is a Technical Scientific University with a high research reputation offering both undergraduate and postgraduate degrees. The University of Bath currently holds 30 FP6 projects and some 10 FP7 projects. The Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering (DACE) received a grade 5 in the last National Research Assessment exercise and is listed among the 3 best research university departments in the built environment in UK. DACE has excellent testing and analysis facilities for structural engineering. The research portfolio span from History of Architecture to hydraulics and the underlining theme is sustainability of the built environment and conservation of resources.DACE has an annual research budget in excess of 2.3 Meuro, from national and international funding Institutions.

Brief description of tasks attributed: UBATH is leading WP6. It will take responsibility of developing adequate testing procedures for various type of structural connections (wall-to-wall, floor-to-wall and roof-to-wall) according to the partners input. It will coordinate the work of characterization of connections under strengthened and unstrengthened conditions. Furthermore, it will work on the development ofa new type of dissipative anchors with embedded sensoring system. Requirements and design parameters will be defined in collaboration with PA n° 14 (CINTEC), responsible for the industrial development. Intense testing will be carried out for complete characterization and to derive adequate design procedures. Case-study application (WP9) will validate the technology and help calibrating the sensors for early warning. The work will flow into the guidelines of WP10. Other main contributes to the work are in WP 2.

Previous experience relevant to tasks attributed:The seismic vulnerability group is part of the BRE-CICM centre and manages international collaborative projects for a budget of 2.5 MEuro: USGS 2009-2010 Building Vulnerability data and analytical fragility functions for PAGER – Joint with EERI; KTP 2008-2010 Development of a dissipative device for masonry anchors, with Cintec International; WB 2007-2008 Inventory and Multi-Hazard and Earthquake Performance Evaluation of the Cultural Heritage Buildings in Istanbul; EPSRC Dorothy Hodgkin PhD. on "Seismic behaviour of masonry historic heritage”; The Royal Society Smart Control of Buildings; Ford Foundation 2004-2006 “Multi-hazard vulnerability assessment for historic buildings”; EU-DELTUR/MEDTQ/53-02 2003-2005 Seismic vulnerability and strengthening of historic building in Fatih, Istanbul, Turkey; CNR2003-2004 Damage mechanisms and seismic vulnerability in Serravalle, Italy, with University of Padova, Italy; EU-Asia Urbs Nepal 2002 Seismic vulnerability assessment of the historic town of Lalitpur.

Short profile of staff members:

Dr. Dina D’Ayala is a Senior Lecturer in Structures. She has a first Degree from Rome “La Sapienza” in Civil Engineering and a PhD. in Structural Engineering from University of Cambridge, UK. She has 20 years research experience and more than 80 international publications on vulnerability of monumental structures and historic city centres, structural masonry and timber, conservation and strengthening of historic buildings, with applications in the UK, Italy, Turkey, India and many World Heritage Sites. She lectures in Structures, earthquake engineering and conservation of historic buildings at undergraduate and postgraduate level and she currently supervises 6 students at Ph.D level. She has received funding from EPSRC, IDA-WB, The Royal Society, EU, and English Heritage. She is a member of several National and international organisation and Institutions involved in the preservation of historic building and architectural heritage and in reduction of seismic risk.

Dr Enrico Fodde is a Lecturer in Sustainable Materials, teaching on natural building materials and historic buildings conservation. He has published two books and over 20 international papers on study of traditional materials and their conservation. He is a member of ICOMOS International Scientific Committee for Earthen Architectural Heritage. Since 2002 he has worked for UNESCO as field director for several international conservation projects in seismic countries, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan, Pakistan, and the United Arab Emirates.